"Mobile internet use has reached 55% of the world's population. By the end of 2021, 4.3 billion people were using mobile internet, an increase of almost 300 million since the end of 2020. Growth in mobile internet adoption has almost entirely been driven by people living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). As a result, for the first time, half of the population in LMICs is using mobile internet. Mobile broadband coverage continues to slowly expand, with 95% of the world’s population covered by a mobile broadband network. At the end of 2021, the coverage gap – those living in areas without mobile broadband coverage – represented 5% of the world’s population (400 million people). The coverage gap has only reduced by 1 percentage point (pp) per year between 2018 and 2021, showing how challenging it is to cover the remaining population, who are predominantly poor and rural. In the least developed countries (LDCs), more than one in six people live in areas without mobile broadband coverage." (Key findings, p.5)